THE EFFECT OF ATTENTION ON AUDITORY EVOKED POTENTIALS.
Abstract
Click-evoked potentials were recorded from unanesthetized cats with electrodes chronically implanted in the auditory cortex, cochlear nucleus, and round window. The clicks (irrelevant stimuli) were presented continuously as background before, during, and after the presentation of a visual discrimination task (relevant stimuli) which attempted to alter the attentive state of the animals. The mean peak-to-peak amplitudes of averaged click-evoked responses from six adult female cats were significantly smaller during attention to the visual discrimination stimuli when compared with the pre-discrimination and control periods. This relationship was present at all electrode placements for five experimental animals with middle ear muscles cut as well as one control animal with middle ear muscles intact. The results suggest that during attention, a central inhibitory mechanism, independent of middle ear muscles, modifies click-evoked responses possibly via the olivo-cochlear bundle which terminates on the hair cells in the cochlea. (Author)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Oct 01, 1968
- Accession Number
- AD0681207
Entities
People
- Lynn C. Oatman
Organizations
- Human Engineering Laboratory